June 15, 2012 -- Soybean Meal

It’s mid-June and that means the execution of an annual tradition in the backyard tomato garden. It’s a tradition that goes back to my high school days when I operated a commercial vegetable growing operation in north Missouri. It’s a tradition that produces big dividends when you get ready to enjoy those first red-ripe tomatoes from your garden.

When green tomatoes on tomato vines have become the size of small marbles, I take to the garden with my 50-pound bag of soybean meal and get ready to give the plants a nourishment that they don’t forget. The plants have come a long way from tiny seeds to four-inch high plants in their grow pots to the shock of transplant to the garden, and now they are ready for some more help.

I take two big handfuls of soybean meal and and distribute it in a circle around each plant. Two big handfuls measures out to be about the amount of meal you can put in a one-pound coffee can. Out of a fifty pound bag of meal, I get enough to fortify the future of my 48 tomato plants. You can almost see the difference in 24 hours as the soybean meal begins its magic.

Soybean meal is a high nitrogen cattle and horse feed. As it decomposes around each plant, it forms an organic fertilizer. You never have to worry about it harming the plants because it is organic. You’ll notice an odor as it becomes a part of the soil. As it decomposes, it enriches the plant and develops tomatoes that have set on the vine. If you put it on before tiny tomatoes have formed, the high nitrogen content can retard the set of fruits.

Soybean meal is not easy to find. Few garden stores carry it because it is not a mainstream or well-known fertilizer. You usually have to go to a grain elevator or a farm feed store to find it. It’s well worth the search as you will find out. Because soybean yields are high this year, you’ll find soybean meal prices a bit lower than usual. I paid $10.25 for a 50-pound bag -- less than in recent years.

Here are some of the places you can find soybean meal -- Waldo Feed and Grain on Wornall Road, Merriam Feed and Seed on Johnson Drive, the Drexel Elevator in Drexel, Mo. Good luck and I know you’ll have a great tomato harvest.